Capsule review №4

Thoughts upon reading
The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler.

* * * *

Look what man hath wrought.

Dominator Culture, the state, and wealth/power elitism.

Why did He do this to us?

Riane Eisler addresses this fundamental question in The Chalice and the Blade.

She starts by talking about matrifocal culture. It was the original Way.

The males had psychological issues.

Before there was a separate social sphere, it was all domestic. Bands were just large extended families or a group of a couple of extended families. They foraged, sustained a campsite, maybe moved the campsite from season to season, created culture together (games, songs, dances, stories) and lived … pretty much in the moment, in nature.

Women were central. Everybody wanted Mom’s attention.

Men were necessary in some ways — as injectors and protectors — and so they were tolerated. Reproduction, of course, is a big deal. If a guy fathered five children during his lifetime, he was a sperm injector five significant times. This contribution to the cause took a total of maybe an hour or two overall (figuring a copulation act to last fifteen minutes).

Protecting the territorial boundaries was appreciated.

Not really much food came from hunting. Males did love to set off for multi-day excursions, but those seemed to be mostly bro-adventures, seeing as how a lot of the time they came back with a rabbit or two and a couple of squirrels. There was an occasional feast-celebration when they scavenged some big game. But the main food source was derived from the foraging of the women-folk.

Men were peripheral. Their need for women was greater than vice versa. Their desire for the attention of women was more than vice versa. They competed for the love of women more than vice versa.

They were a little nutso . . . they competed and preened and were driven to Impress.

The women generally were not driven to be viewed as Heroines. Why work so hard? They were already central and included and OK.

The men were driven to be Heroes . . . because they wanted the love of women and kids and people in general, because they were a little anxious about their place. Studies of aboriginal vital statistics show that the women thrived more.

When life got tough in the wake of the Neolithic Revolution (population densities had reached a challenging level) men had a new way to be Heroes by organizing agricultural production. Irrigation agriculture required relatively complex infrastructure. And it required something else that was new: work discipline.

The situation lent itself to a new kind of Aggrandizement . . . as Coordinator, Administrator.

Boss.

The Boss-Hero, the Big Man. The feted, respected, admired, loved one. Within a whole new sphere of life . . . that of production.

When people needed more due to rising population densities, productive intensity became valued, but so did expansion of territory. A Really Big Hero would coordinate expansion. Conquer neighbors and put them to work.

With the initiation of a whole new realm of life, the productive sphere, came militarism, wealth, power, and domination. It was a playground within which men could Compete and Achieve. They were, of course, already programmed to do so.

The domination aspect was new.

It really was. Riane Eisler points out that it only goes back five thousand years.

The sphere of the New Ways (production, accumulation, urbanism, statism, militarism) has been problematic ever since. Men took to it like ducks to water. Because they have psychological problems.

Hyper-competitive and driven to succeed, alpha males succeeded big-time. The rest of the males suffered big-time. The vital statistics and sociological statistics of men overall are inferior to those of women, but the truth is that alpha males thrive just fine. The unfavorable statistics reflect the frustration of the rest.

Women had conflicted thoughts about the situation. If the men were a little peculiar before, now they were erratic. Their Strivings were sometimes comical. For some women there were perks to being associated with power and wealth, but the hyper-competition, the big stakes, the Successes and the Failures were making relationships daunting. Much toxicity.

Riane Eisler’s book talks about the rise of Dominator Culture characterized by patriarchy, power elitism, inequality, injustice, exploitation, oppression. She has a distinctive interpretation of the ascent into civilization, complementary to Fredy Perlman’s Against His-story, Against Leviathan.

Bottom line: The guys are afflicted and we now face the challenge of deconstructing what they hath wrought.